Rollercoaster tour of the US

I'm writing this with hopes of getting some insights and tips for an upcoming grand tour of what I believe is not too far off the general Bald Move epicenter.

Basically we're a group of 5 friends from Norway in our late twenties and early thirties going on a 3 week rollercoaster (literally) trip i june/july, from Washington DC, through Virginia, North-Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. We will be travelling by car.

During this trip the goal is to ride as many of the areas rollercoasters as possible. We're planning to visit Kings dominion, Busch Gardens, Carowinds, Dollywood, Kings island, Kentucky kingdom, Cedar point, Kennywood, Hersheypark and Six flags great adventure. We are well aware of the magnitude of this schedule as it probably will be alot, we are also aware of the huge amounts of people in these parks during summer. Hence we are getting all the fast passes and such, no worries.

Our supreme great leader and rollercoaster connoisseur has been a life long rollercoaster autist, which means he has all the plans in order for the rollercoaster part. However the part of american culture guide has been left open to me to fill in the blanks in between the rollercoasters.

My assignment is to find fun, interesting, tasty, ironic and obscure sights and activities to do while on the road. The kind of ironc humour of our vacation, the mere fact that a group of adults with no children decide to spend a major part of their summer holiday going to the other side of the Atlantic to ride rollercoasters, should give you fine people an idea of our easy going ways.

I've been doing a couple of Google searches and ploughing through the travel app Tripadvisor, but all I seem to find is museums and segway tours (we are an ironic group, but not that ironic). I'm struggling to find the ooompf.

So far I've been able to locate these activities- Sausage eating contest in DC- The amazing creationism museum in Kentucky where you can see Jesus riding dinosaurs- The Abe Lincoln birth site, which actually sounds interesting given the historic magnitude of Lincoln- Doing a hike in some mountains called Greaty Smoky Mountains

Apart from tips for activities I'm also on the lookout for tips into the culinary world of the US. Personally I have an intense hate of sweet potato and all things deep fried, but everything else is fine. We will be ending our trip in Eleven Madison Park, which should take care of our gourmet cravings, but apart from that everything that is in the realm of every day food is cool.

Ive made a Google map of our itinerary here. 4th of July we will be in Pittsburgh.

So, any insights, tips or stuff to share? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Definitely stop off in Asheville, it's a really cool mountain city in North Carolina and looks like you're going right by it. Good food, good craft beer. Biltmore Estate (mansion/estate built by the Vanderbilts, one of America's most rich/powerful families in the 1800's) is worth checking out when you're there. Also if you have the time for a detour a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway would be nice - it's a beautiful scenic route for the mountain. Also a lot of areas to stop off for hiking.

Edit: and also you're going through prime BBQ country. I'm most familiar w/ North Carolina bbq having lived there ... a bunch of places on this map are along your route:

That sounds awesome! So is this basically a russefeiring sequel? Or coasterfeiring as it were?

I grew up going to King's Dominion and Busch Gardens, riding the Grizzly at night is probably my favorite roller coaster experience. I still vividly remember riding Flight of Fear right when it opened in 1996, the same summer when Independence Day and Duke Nukem 3D came out, and The X-Files hadn't started to suck yet, it was a cool alien-themed summer, 13-year old me loved it (when it opened it was The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear themed more on the '60s sci-fi anthology). The lines were absolutely insane back then, like 4-8 hours through the opening summer and still 2-3 hours years later.

Anyway, as for obscure things to do, for your consideration: goat yoga

Also when you go down to Busch Gardens you're close to Virginia Beach, maybe check it out for a day and go paragliding or something.

@ivarvass are you just passing through NY state or are you going into NYC?

We will spend some days in NYC at the tail end of the trip, yeah. Thinking bout doing some probing through NYC state post tour as well. Any good stuff coming to mind?

Aside from the usual touristy stuff that evvvvvveryone will recommend, you should go to Top of the Rock. It's an observatory deck high above Rockefeller Center. On the south-facing side, you have an amazing view of the Empire State Building. If you go at night, you'll catch it lit up.

And yeah, Central Park, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the American Museum of Natural History (right by Central Park), all the touristy stuff.

I grew up going to King's Dominion and Busch Gardens, riding the Grizzly at night is probably my favorite roller coaster experience. I still vividly remember riding Flight of Fear right when it opened in 1996, the same summer when Independence Day and Duke Nukem 3D came out, and The X-Files hadn't started to suck yet, it was a cool alien-themed summer, 13-year old me loved it (when it opened it was The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear themed more on the '60s sci-fi anthology). The lines were absolutely insane back then, like 4-8 hours through the opening summer and still 2-3 hours years later.

I miss the Big Bad Wolf. Looking like you're heading into the scenery when you turned got me every time.

Definitely stop off in Asheville, it's a really cool mountain city in North Carolina and looks like you're going right by it. Good food, good craft beer. Biltmore Estate (mansion/estate built by the Vanderbilts, one of America's most rich/powerful families in the 1800's) is worth checking out when you're there. Also if you have the time for a detour a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway would be nice - it's a beautiful scenic route for the mountain. Also a lot of areas to stop off for hiking.

I second all of this, I really liked Asheville, and having a drink and the classy old Grove Park Inn there overlooking the mountains is very nice Tail of the Dragon is a famous sports car / motorcycle road or the Cherohala Skyway is also worthwhile, you can drive them on the way to Gatlinburg/Great Smoky NP.

Yeah, driving the Dragon is always fun. What day will you be in Cincy? I've got a season pass to Kings Island, and I'm about 15 minutes away. I'd love to see a bunch of crazy Norwegians try the Beast for the first time.

it's gone? i remember as a kid my cousins (who live in TX) always talking about it when i would visit in the summers. wasn't there a water park next to it?

Sorry man I somehow didn’t see this. Yeah it closed in 2005. There was WaterWorld right next to it. You got entrance to both with 1 ticket so you’d just wear your swim trunks while at Astroworld and then take a connecting sidewalk to WaterWorld to finish out the day. This thread made me so nostalgic I bought family season passes to the latest H-Tine waterpark a few days ago. I stared at an AstroWorld map for a straight 10 minutes today. And also now I’m waiting for that Travis Scott AstroWorld album to drop.

I derailed this thread bad. (No rollercoaster pun intended). Sorry Norwegian dude. I wish I had something I could contribute but I haven’t been to that part of the U.S. Should have sat this one out. Super jealous of your vacation though man. I’m sure it will be legendary!

I grew up going to King's Dominion and Busch Gardens, riding the Grizzly at night is probably my favorite roller coaster experience. I still vividly remember riding Flight of Fear right when it opened in 1996, the same summer when Independence Day and Duke Nukem 3D came out, and The X-Files hadn't started to suck yet, it was a cool alien-themed summer, 13-year old me loved it (when it opened it was The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear themed more on the '60s sci-fi anthology). The lines were absolutely insane back then, like 4-8 hours through the opening summer and still 2-3 hours years later.

I miss the Big Bad Wolf. Looking like you're heading into the scenery when you turned got me every time.

Oh yeah Big Bad Wolf was awesome, the part towards the end where it takes you down towards the water edge and swoops around was so awesome.

Yeah, driving the Dragon is always fun. What day will you be in Cincy? I've got a season pass to Kings Island, and I'm about 15 minutes away. I'd love to see a bunch of crazy Norwegians try the Beast for the first time.

According to the itinerary we will be in King Island Sunday the 1st of July. If you (or anyone else for that matter) want to join us for a day in the park you are most welcome! I would at least be stoked as hell to hang out with my favourite podcaster for a day of rollercoasters, sweat and beer!

That damn creation museum.....sigh. My state can be embarrassing for a many number of reasons but that just might be number one. Actually, our shitball Governor is definitely number one but that's for a different thread. That place is funny and sad but it's a lot of money to go there. It didn't entirely feel worth it to me. And that was when it was $10 cheaper and way before the Noah's Ark replica was there right next door. (Which also costs $35 to see) But as someone who doesn't live in this state and hearing about the millions and millions they got in tax breaks to build that bullshit, I can see it being an obvious destination for people.

Also, Cedar Point is incredible! We went there right after they built Millennium Force. We tried sitting in the front seat of every roller coaster, and did, but we also sat in the absolute last seat and its wayyyyyyy scarier! Highly recommend it!